Levent Halil Chetinkaya & Tracey Curaba

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that solicitor Levent Chetinkaya, after his client's signed conveyancing documents were lost, instructed his legal secretary Tracey Curaba to create and backdate a letter dated 6 April 2017 to give a false impression that documents had been sent out (allegation 1.1), and deliberately misled his client as to the whereabouts of her documents to conceal their loss (allegation 1.3). Both allegations were found proved with dishonesty (applying the Ivey test), breaching Principles 2, 4, 5 and 6. Allegations 1.2 and 1.4 (and the associated dishonesty) were not proved. The Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances and struck him off the Roll, ordering him to pay £9,000 costs. The Second Respondent (unadmitted) was found to have created and backdated the letter on his instructions, knowing it was wrong, with dishonesty proved (allegation 2.1); allegation 2.2 was not proved. She was made subject to a section 43 order and ordered to pay £1,000 costs. Total costs were assessed at £11,250, reduced and apportioned due to the Applicant's procedural failings (an inaccurate Rule 5 Statement paragraph and late disclosure of a relevant email).

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Act in the client's best interests
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty found proved
• Deliberate and calculated misconduct continued over a period
• Two separate incidences of dishonesty
• Concealment was the whole intention
• Self-serving motivation to insulate himself against complaint
• Involved a subordinate (the Second Respondent) in his misconduct
• Lack of insight; attempted to rewrite history in evidence; no early admissions

Mitigating factors:

• No previous appearance before the Tribunal
• Otherwise unblemished career save for an earlier Regulatory Settlement Agreement
• Harm to client somewhat limited
• Testimonials as to good character
• Personal difficulties (marriage breakdown, sole carer for children), heavy workload and fasting during Ramadan (found not to be exceptional circumstances)